Thailand Spurns IMF’s Call to Rethink Rice-Purchase Program
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Thailand said that it will press on with a $21 billion rice-purchase program, spurning a call from the International Monetary Fund to end the loss-making intervention and telling the lender its approach is better.
“The government has our ways to help farmers,” Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong told reporters in Bangkok today after the IMF released a macro-economic assessment of the country, known as an Article IV consultation. “We listened to different points of view but the IMF needs to profoundly understand the situation before giving theoretical comments,” he said, adding that he hadn’t yet read the report.